Unhappy England to raise Root LBW decision with referee

Team Udayavani, Jan 30, 2017, 12:06 PM IST

Nagpur: England captain Eoin Morgan says the umpire’s decision to rule Joe Root out LBW at a crucial juncture cost them the second Twenty20 against India and they will raise the issue with the ICC match referee.

Umpire C Shamsuddin had adjudged well-set Root leg before wicket off Jasprit Bumrah in the last over when the batsman had actually edged the ball.

“It’s extreme frustration absolutely. It shifted momentum in the 20th over. Losing a batsman who has faced 40 balls to the first ball on a wicket that’s not that easy to time the ball on is quite a bit of a hammer blow,” said Morgan.

“It proved very costly and all things considered, a couple of decisions did not go our way. We still should have won the game, that’s the big positive for us, but the fact we did not do it is really disappointing. We have the opportunity to do before the next game as feedback is given through the match referee on a report,” he added.

He also did not believe he got out to a rash shot when well set.

“No I don’t think so. I really played well tonight. We produced a really good bowling performance on a wicket that suited India more than us. I think in the chase we were always in a reasonable position. We built partnerships till the end. We should have won the game,” he said.

“We will draw a line on it tomorrow and move on before Bangalore,” he added.

England needed 24 off last two overs, got 16 of those in the 19th bowled by Ashish Nehra before falling short of the target in the last over from Bumrah in which both Root and Jos Buttler got out to hand India a five-run win.

Asked if it was disappointing that DRS is not present in T20 games, he said “A little bit yeah. Even if it’s only available for World Cup Games (it will be good). There’s no reason why it should not be there.”

He also said a T20 game should strike a fine balance beween batsmen and bowlers.
“Personally it should be combination of both. High percentage of audience want balls to be hit for six and lower percentage want bowlers take wickets and put batsmen under pressure. It should be a 70:30 split.”